A LEG PATIENT. 



239 



and the pieces were in use for other purposes. 

 They were sent off again, and at length we received 

 notice that the bed was coming, and presently it 

 appeared advancing through the gate of the cattle- 

 yard in the shape of a bundle of poles on the shoul- 

 der of an Indian. For purposes of immediate use, 

 they might as well have been on the tree that pro- 

 duced them, but, after a while, they were put to- 

 gether, and made a bedstead that would have aston- 

 ished a city cabinet-maker. 



In the mean time the patient was looking on, 

 perhaps with somewhat the feeling of a man super- 

 intending the making of his own coffin. The dis- 

 ease was in his right leg, which was almost as thick 

 as his body, covered with ulcers, and the distended 

 veins stood out like whipcords. Doctor Cabot con- 

 sidered it necessary to cut two veins. The Indian 

 stood up, resting the whole weight of his body on 

 the diseased leg, so as to bring them out to the full- 

 est, and supporting himself by leaning with his 

 hands on a bench. One vein was cut, the wound 

 bound up, and then the operation was performed on 

 the other by thrusting a stout pin into the flesh un- 

 der the vein, and bringing it out on the other side, 

 then winding a thread round the protruding head 

 and point, and leaving the pin to cut its way through 

 the vein and fester out. The leg was then bound 

 tight, and the Indian laid upon the bed. During 

 the whole time not a muscle of his face moved, and, 

 except at the moment when the pin was thrust un- 



